Searching

Plot: 16 year old Margot (Michelle La) disappears on the way home after studying with kids from school. Her Dad David (John Cho) isn't too worried at first, but no one can find her. Detective Vick (Debra Messing) volunteers to work on the case. David pokes around her computer looking at Gmail, Facebook, Instagram, and a YouTube knockoff. It looks like a murder by a vagrant, but just as they are having the memorial service, one of the YouTube friends turns out to be fake, and the movie goes down a rabbit hole that leads to a roller coaster ride. I didn't see that coming. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: This film is emotional and gripping even though it is (almost) entirely told in video chats, text messages, and search results. This gimmick is refreshingly different, but it worked great here.

Searching is a good mystery: you learn more and more about the crime, and then everything you thought you knew gets turned upside down.  It's emotional roller-coaster too. I liked how I gradually I became aware that something was wrong.

The writing and directing is the real star of the movie. That is what makes it different and suspenseful. Director Chaganty says the editing was also critical, the way the text appears and the its timing were critical to the emotional experience.

John Cho gives a good performance that is surprisingly wide ranging. Debra Messing is intense too. 

Cast: John Cho, Michelle La, Debra Messing

Written and directed by: First time director Aneesh Chaganty

Editted by: Nick Johnson, Will Merrick

The Music: A pretty piano-heavy soundtrack by Torin Borrowdale. I bought the the end credits track. 

The Visuals: Searching is mostly computer screens, but there are some interest stuff effects, for example the screen gets pixelly when they want you to realize you are looking at a computer.  

Rating: 3.5 stars: Emotional, well-made, creative, but not 4 stars because it is pure entertainment; it is an elaborate story that is just for fun.  

More: There have been computer-only movies before, such as the horror movie Unfriended.

Big time spoilers: When it comes down to it, this is a worst-case cyber-bullying story, where a quiet pretty girl is stalked by a nerdy, quiet boy, but when they meet IRL everything goes wrong and there is a fatal accident. Like idiots, the boy & his mom cover up the accident, and draw in an ex-con to take the blame, but he might talk, so now it's a murder.

Even More: This is the official poster with all the floating windows. It succinctly describes the film, but I don't like the way it looks.

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